Overlap
by Chaimera
Summary: Short story. Hermione's thoughts over a cauldron.


Disclaimer: I had this fab dream where I owned Harry Potter and everything even remotely related to it, and I was married to Alan Rickman. Alas it was just that, a dream. I do not own Harry Potter or anything even remotely related to it. No am I married to Alan Rickman. Sigh.

Hello there. I am returned with this little bit of nothing that I like to call a story. It's very short. In fact it's so short I wouldn't even call it a fic. It's more like a fi.

Hermione's POV. Her thoughts over a cauldron.

I hope you enjoy.

Overlap

By Chaimera

_I search your profile for translations_

_Study the conversations like a map_

'_Cause I know there is strength in the differences between us_

_And I know there is comfort where we overlap_

Overlap – Ani Di Franco

He drives me insane.

Absolutely crackers.

He's a stubborn as an ass isn't he?

Well, he is an ass.

I've known him for as long as I've been in this world.

This magical, wondrous, dangerous and utterly deadly world.

He has helped me survive it, though I don't think he realises that.

Arrgh, it is SO frustrating, just sitting here while he sneers at me and keeps working.

If he just let me help, it would go faster, we might even come up with something new.

If he would just let me help him, then maybe he would realise his life is worth something.

I'm pretty sure he's got a death wish.

I've seen him risk his life so many times.

He nearly died once.

I stayed by his bed until he awoke.

And when he did.... well, words were exchanged.

I've gone over that conversation so many times.

If I had changed what I said would he have treated me differently? Does it betray any feelings he might have towards me?

Besides annoyance that is.

I think he likes me. Just a little.

Maybe he's just built up a tolerance to me.

Most people cant stand me.

Of course most people cant stand him.

We're like two ends of a magnet, him and I.

We're made up of the same basic elements, but have different charges.

Maybe were destined to repel each other.

Or, me repel him anyway.

Albus said that to him once.

He told me, in a rare fit of friendliness.

Albus told him that we were very alike, which is why he's walled us up together. That we would work well together.

He laughed when he told me this.

It was a horrible sound.

Cold and humourless.

Honestly, I wanted to hold him right then and there.

Heal whatever had made his soul so inaccessible.

Or maybe it's gone.

Killed by years of denying it the comfort it needed in times of need.

I think I'm in love with him.

It's odd really.

He is neither a handsome nor an agreeable man.

He is cold, mean and spiteful.

My friends would tell me that it is just pity I felt for this sad man.

At any other time I would have agreed with them, but I used to feel pity for him.

When I sat by his bed I felt pity for him.

When he threw a tantrum when Albus announced that we were to work together in seclusion, I felt pity for him.

When he complimented me in his own unique way after a breakthrough, I began to look on him as a friend.

When he smiled at me as he thought I wasn't looking, when he cooked dinner after a particularly rough day and when he comforted me (albeit awkwardly) when I learned of Ginny's death, I fell in love with him.

He confuses and confounds me.

To say I get mixed signals from this man would be a gross understatement.

I have come to the conclusion that either he doesn't have the balls to tell me he feels anything or he feels nothing at all and is laughing at me behind my back.

I'm going to go ahead and hope it's the former even though I'm setting myself up for heartbreak.

Damn Albus.

It's all his fault really.

If I hadn't been living with this man for the last year with not even a house elf in sight, this would have never happened.

To say we work together would be misleading you.

In reality we work in the same space.

That is the extent of it.

We work and hope that we figure out something.

I think he sees it as a task almost.

As if he has to prove to me that he is superior to me by beating me too it. Also he likes to humiliate the Gryffindor know-it-all as much as possible.

I've tried working _with _him.

He just won't have it.

He's too single minded to see that if we worked together our combined ideas, a bit of healthy antiphonal dialogue (1) might speed up and enhance the process.

I repeat: Arrgh!!

I have a problem.

Ok, come on girl.

Where's your Gryffindor bravery? I am going to grab this by the horns, so to speak.

I look across the lab at him just as he averts his eyes.

He was watching me again.

He does that a lot.

I've questioned him about it, but he just got angry with me and then didn't speak to me for a week.

Took me thee nights of spaghetti carbonara to get him to even look at me.

That's one of the few thing about most men that you can apply to him too.

The best way to a man is through his stomach.

He's impossible when he gets into one of his moods as well, which is often enough. Though I have noticed that the lack of hormonal teenagers has made them decrease slightly, just slightly.

Makes me wonder why Albus ever let him teach in the first place.

I mean, I know he's the top potions master in Europe, but really. If a person hates children as much as he does, don't put them in a school.

And he really does hate them. It's not just a front.

One night we both indulged in a bottle of Fire Whiskey and it loosened his tongue. A lot.

He went on a slightly drunken rant about how much he disliked children, and his suggestions on improvements on the discipline of minors.

I countered with a rant on his lack of anger management.

We didn't talk for two days.

Now I know what your thinking:

"Well, if you fight and don't speak so much, why the hell are you in love with him?"

And it's a good a valid question.

You see, when he's bad, he a monumental pain in the arse.

But when he's nice, well he interesting, a good talking, lively debate with. Funny in a morbid sort of way. And he cares.

It's hard to see but he does.

In fact, I think he cares too much.

It why he gets so angry.

A loud noise from his side of the lab startles me.

I was daydreaming.

He's glaring at me now, onyx eyes burning.

Maybe this isn't such a good idea.

No!

Uphold the good name of Gryffindor and all that toss.

I will do this.

Oh bugger he looks scary.

I want to kiss him.

Shite!

Well, wish me luck!

"Um...Severus?"

Sigh "Yes what is it Miss Gra....Hermione?"

"There's something I need to tell you..."

Fini.

I'm not sure if I'm using this phrase correctly. If I'm not please tell me. Or even if you just come up with a better term. I know there is one, I just couldn't remember it.

Well, there you go. I apologise if its kinda crap, but it was a surprise plot bunny attack. I was just sitting there reading but they had been lying in wait for the opportune moment. Damn them all.

Any way, I know the format is a bit weird, but from the way I wrote it, it felt quite disjointed and all over the place, so that's the way I spaced it. Sorry if it's a problem.

Please review, I need help. The evidence is above.

Much Grá.


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